SYRIA HEADLINES FROM RELIABLE SOURCES, AUGUST 4, 2012

Insurgents have carried out a mortar attack near a hospital in Damascus, killing at least one civilian and injuring more than 10 other people.

The mortar attack hit an area near the al-Abbasiyeen hospital on Saturday.

Meanwhile, on the same day, a large number of insurgents were killed during clashes between government forces and armed groups in the northern city of Aleppo.

Earlier in the day, government troops repelled an attack on a broadcasting center housing the studios of a radio station and a TV station in Aleppo.

On Friday, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution condemning the UN Security Council for failing to agree on measures to end the unrest in Syria.

However, Russia and China condemned the resolution and said it undermined peace efforts.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the armed militants are foreign nationals.

AGB/AS/HGL

A Syrian brigadier general says the army has taken control of all the neighborhoods in the capital, Damascus.

“We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus, from al-Midan to Mazzeh, from al-Hajar al-Aswad to Qadam… to Tadamun,” said the general, whose name was not mentioned in the report.

“There is no more presence of armed groups apart for some individuals who are moving from one place to another, just to prove that they exist,” the general stated.

Meanwhile, insurgents kidnapped a Syrian TV cameraman in Damascus.

Earlier on Saturday, the security forces discovered a mass grave of the bodies of civilians and Syrian army members near the capital.

The Syrian troops have killed a large number of terrorists in clashes between government troops and insurgents across the country over the past few days.

In the western province of Hama, the Syrian army carried out an operation on Saturday, killing dozens of insurgents in the town of al-Rastan, about 184 kilometers (114 miles) north of Damascus.

Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil in Syria that began in March 2011.

On August 3, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution on Syria, proposed by Saudi Arabia, which criticized the Security Council and the Syrian government.

However, Russia and China condemned the resolution and said it undermined peace efforts.

HSN/JR/IS

Syrian state TV says foreign-sponsored insurgents have killed at least 20 people in a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

The development comes as Syrian security forces discovered a mass grave near the capital on Saturday.

Bodies of civilians and Syrian army members were found in the mass grave.

Meanwhile, the Syrian troops have killed a large number of terrorists in clashes between government troops and insurgents across the country over the past few days.

Also on Saturday, Syrian security forces in the western province of Hama killed dozens of insurgents during clashes in the town of al-Rastan, about 184 kilometers (114 miles) north of Damascus.

In addition, fighting continues on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Aleppo and the Syrian army has inflicted heavy losses on insurgents.

The latest development comes two days after Kofi Annan announced that he will resign as the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria at the end of August.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry expressed regret about the resignation of Annan.

On August 1, Syrian President Bashar Assad said the country is engaged in a “crucial and heroic” battle that will determine the destiny of the nation.

HSN/JR/IS

The UK government has vowed to step up support for terrorists fighting the Syrian government forces in the wake of the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan resignation.

Foreign Secretary William Hague disclosed that Britain had been providing support for terrorists in Syria, adding that the country will be providing even more “practical and non-lethal” support for them.

“We will over the coming weeks increase our practical but non-lethal support to the opposition,” Hague said. “We have helped with communications and matters of that kind and we will help them more in this situation given the scale of death and suffering and the failure so far of the diplomatic process.”

Hague described Annan’s decision to resign as a “bleak moment” in the armed insurgency that has been seeking to overthrow the popular government of president Bashar al-Assad.

He claimed that the diplomatic approach was not dead, but that “other things” also needed to be done to bring an end to al-Assad government.

“That doesn’t mean … that we give up on diplomacy,” Hague said, adding “We don’t give up on the diplomacy with Russia and with China. But we will have to do other things as well.”

Moscow and Beijing have frequently complained about Western and Arab backing for the insurgents locked in an increasingly bloody drive to topple the Syrian President, saying pressure should be put on both sides to stop the violence.

President Bashar al-Assad says the insurgency is the work of foreign-backed “terrorists”, with his own forces acting to restore stability.

MOL/HE

A Middle East expert says Russia’s recent deployment of vessels to the Syrian port city of Tartus counters the Western stance on Syria, Press TV reports.

“Of course appearance of three big marine vessels in Tartus these days while the United States proclaims intensifying the supply of weapon and financing… militarized groups in [the] Syrian opposition, that means that it is the response of Russia on Western American stance towards Syria,” said Vyacheslav Maluzov in an interview with Press TV on Saturday.

On Friday, the Russian military said Moscow is sending three military ships with up to 120 armed navy personnel on board to its base at Tartus.

The ships are currently conducting planned exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and after visiting Tartus they will head for the Bosphorus and the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to an unnamed Russian military source.

“I think it is [a] political appearance, [a] political signal to the United States, to Turkey who are making maneuvers on Syrian borders by tanks and others that Russia will not retire from its position in nearest future,” Maluzov stated.

“So I think that if we take into consideration the position of Kofi Annan, his retirement and the discussion of issue of Syria in [the] General Assembly of the United Nations… it is obvious that the United States does not want to leave the position of encouraging militarized groups for military action in Syria,” Maluzov added, referring to the resignation of UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

On August 2, Annan announced that he will quit his position as the special envoy to Syria at the end of the month.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry expressed regret about the resignation of Annan.

On August 3, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution on Syria, proposed by Saudi Arabia, which criticized the Security Council and the Syrian government.

However, Russia and China condemned the resolution and said it undermined peace efforts.

Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil in Syria that began in March 2011.

HSN/JR

Syrian security forces have discovered a mass grave in a suburb of the capital, Damascus, amid ongoing clashes between government troops and foreign-sponsored insurgents in the country.

Bodies of civilians and Syrian army members were found in the mass grave on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army says the security forces have killed a large number of terrorists in clashes between government troops and insurgents across the country over the past few days.

Fighting continues on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Aleppo and the Syrian army has inflicted heavy losses on insurgents.

The latest development comes two days after Kofi Annan announced that he will resign as the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria at the end of August.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry expressed regret about the resignation of Annan.

The anti-Syria Western regimes have been calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but Russia and China remain strongly opposed to the Western drive to oust the Syrian president.

On August 1, President Assad said in a speech published by the official SANA news agency that Syria is engaged in a “crucial and heroic” battle that will determine the destiny of the nation.

HSN/JR

Armed insurgents have kidnapped 48 Iranians near the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to reports from Syrian media.

The Iranian pilgrims were traveling on a bus to Damascus International Airport, located some 30 kilometers outside the capital.

The Iranian Embassy in Damascus has confirmed that they were abducted by unknown insurgents but the Syrian state officials are yet to comment on the abduction.

This is not the first time that Iranians have been kidnapped by armed gunmen in Syria.

In January, a group of armed assailants attacked a bus and abducted 11 Iranian pilgrims on the road connecting Damascus to the northwestern city of Aleppo.

In December 2011, armed insurgents also kidnapped five engineers in the city of Homs while they were on their way to work at the city’s Jandar power plant that is under construction by Iranian technicians. Two other Iranians, trying to determine the fate of the engineers, were also abducted.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011.

Damascus says ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists’ are behind the unrest while the West and the opposition accuse the security forces of killing protesters.

AR/SS/IS

Syrian security forces have killed dozens of insurgents during clashes in the western province of Hama.

Fighting broke out between the Syrian government troops and insurgents in the town of al-Rastan, about 184 kilometers (114 miles) north of the capital, Damascus, on Saturday.

Over the past few days, the Syrian forces have killed a large number of terrorists in similar clashes across the country.

Meanwhile, Syrian security forces discovered a mass grave of the bodies of civilians and Syrian army members in a suburb of Damascus on Saturday.

The anti-Syria Western regimes have been calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but Russia and China remain strongly opposed to the Western drive to oust the Syrian president.

On August 3, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution on Syria, proposed by Saudi Arabia, which criticized the Security Council and the Syrian government.

Russia and China condemned the resolution, which was passed by 133 votes to 12 with 31 abstentions, and said it undermined peace efforts.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Saturday censured countries “which have made unfounded criticism of China’s position on the issue of Syria.”

Wang Kejian, the deputy head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s West Asian and North African Affairs Department, said those countries are “trying to hinder or even undermine the political settlement process” for the sake of “their own geopolitical interests in Syria.”